


Tea for Two

by zopyrus



Category: Eight Days of Luke - Jones
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-21
Updated: 2009-12-21
Packaged: 2017-10-04 21:38:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/34386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zopyrus/pseuds/zopyrus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Astrid receives a visit from yet another Norse god.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tea for Two

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ashura](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ashura/gifts).



Urgent summons from the gods themselves had sounded very exciting when Astrid was only reading about them in books.  When they happened in real life, they were mostly just inconvenient.

Astrid had planned to have the flat to herself for the afternoon.  David and Luke had gone off somewhere—and although she was David’s guardian, she was _not_ going to wonder too hard about what they were getting up to, because after all it was none of her business—and Astrid had spent a lovely, leisurely few hours re-arranging her new room and re-inspecting the clothes in her closet.

She had her newest dress pulled halfway over her head when the knocking started.  The sound of it did not go on for very long and was not very loud—just a single, narrow, _rac cat tat_ at the front door.  Perfect silence followed the knock, but something like the shadow of that small, polite sound stayed very loud in Astrid’s ear, as she struggled to free herself from the dress, tugging and hissing and wondering how on earth that _awful_ button had managed to twist its way into her hair.

By the time she had hurled the dress back on to her bed, Astrid was positive she had never owned anything so horrible.  But the shadow-knock was still ringing very silently and unpleasantly in her ear, and she had to wear something—so she pulled the wretched thing back over her head and did up the buttons as she staggered out of her bedroom to the door, head pounding.

She wrenched open the door, and the ringing stopped.  Her head felt—for once, and very abruptly—perfectly clear. 

A skinny, red-haired woman was standing out on the landing, dressed in just the kind of clothes that David had lately taken to wearing: loose blue jeans and a shirt that looked as though it had been slept in several times.

Astrid narrowed her eyes at her visitor, and clutched for effect at her no-longer-aching brows.  “Did _you_ do that?” she asked, indignantly.

The woman shrugged.  “I don’t like to be kept waiting.”  There was a small emerald stud in her left nostril.

Astrid rolled her eyes.  “I suppose you’re not going to tell me your real name?”

The woman laughed—a friendly, open laugh, as though she and Astrid had known one another forever.  In spite of herself, Astrid felt the corners of her own mouth turn up into a smile.

“That does seem to be the trend,” said the woman, “—doesn’t it?  I’ve been thinking about aliases all morning, it’s great fun!  But the only one of _your_ names that seems to fit at all is Sigourney, and I’m not sure if I like it.”  She frowned, doubtfully.  “I suppose you’re not going to invite me in?”

“David’s not here,” said Astrid.  She crossed her arms and, with a kind of proud guardianly feeling, added, nobly, “I’m not about to tell you where he is, either.  You people have asked quite enough of him already.”

Sigourney shook her head, dismissively.  “I’m not looking for David.  I saw him with Luke.”  She smiled at Astrid, and the emerald in her nose glinted.  “_You_ are the person I wanted to meet.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“Everybody I know has been talking about the two of you,” said Sigourney a little later, over her second cup of tea.  “Of course most of them are more interested in David, but I’ve heard a lot about you, too—from Thor especially.  He quite likes you, you know.”

Astrid blushed.

“Anyhow,” said Sigourney, airily, “I thought that I should see for myself—after all, my family has never been as reliable as I might have hoped.”  She was still smiling, but for a second Astrid thought she saw something that was not funny at all flash across Sigourney’s face.

Astrid shifted uneasily.  “Neither is mine,” she said.

“I know,” said Sigourney, raising an eyebrow at the understatement.  “That’s why I looked you up.”  She set her cup down almost silently into the saucer on the table, and her gaze flickered back to Astrid.  “You might not know it, but we have something in common.”

“Oh?” said Astrid.  That earlier flash had sparked what she thought was a rather good guess about Sigourney’s real name.  She was not sure if she wanted to be right.

“Oh, indeed,” said Sigourney, with a grin that—to Astrid’s slight, unsurprised dismay—looked an awful lot like Luke’s.  “Can you guess what it is?” 

Neither woman moved, but Astrid felt as though the space between them had shrunk.  The air in the flat felt close and stuffy, and she was sure she was right.  _Poor David,_ she thought.

“I’m going to guess something else instead,” Astrid said, crossing her arms.  “I think I know who you are.

“Oh?” said Sigourney, grin widening.

“Your real name is Sigyn,” said Astrid.  “You’re Luke’s, no, _Loki’s_—you’re his wife.”

“Very good,” said Sigourney, quietly.  “Why don’t you pour me another cup of tea?”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“You look much older than he does,” said Astrid, and winced.  Of all the things she could have said, of course _that_ had to come out first.

Sigyn laughed.  “Actually I’m much younger—not that anyone is counting.”  She tossed her hair, and as it settled Astrid saw that her face, without ever _changing_ exactly, was four years old, and forty, and far over a hundred.  “You must know by now that we appear more or less as we want.”

Astrid couldn’t imagine ever _choosing_ to look old, when you had the option of being eternally twenty—but she supposed that sort of thing mattered less when you lived forever.

“You still haven’t said why you came,” she said, carefully.

Sigyn shook her head.  “Haven’t I?  I told you when you answered the door—I wanted to meet you.”  She smiled mischievously.  “Also, both of our husbands are criminals.  I thought we’d get along.”

 “We do,” said Astrid, wistfully.  “It’s been simply ages since I had someone to talk to who was—well, who _seemed_ my age.”

Sigyn smiled slyly.  “How old do I seem, then?”

“Twenty-five,” said Astrid, promptly and shamelessly, and Sigyn laughed.

They looked at each other, and Astrid felt herself producing her own kind of grin.  Sigyn leaned her elbows comfortably on the table.  Then, quite calmly, she said,

“I know all about Luke and David, you know.”

Astrid’s grin slipped.

“It seemed like it was worrying you.”

Astrid blinked. “You were so friendly,” she said.  “I thought you must _not_ know.”

Sigyn rolled her eyes.  “It’s hard to miss.”

“Aren’t you jealous?” asked Astrid.  “I’m not like David, I’ve read all the stories.  You gave up so much for him, and now—”

“Stop it,” said Sigyn.  “I’m happy to be on my own, after all this time.  We made each other miserable, when he was in prison.  But I couldn’t leave, and he couldn’t send me away, because he needed me.  I think we’ll both be a little sick of each other for a good long time.” 

Astrid looked at her, still uncertain.  Sigyn kept talking.

“David’s a good influence on Luke—everyone thinks so—and I’m glad of that.  But Luke will be a bad influence on David, eventually.  Watch out for them both, as much as you can.”

“I promise I will,” said Astrid. 

“Good,” said Sigyn.  “That’s settled, then.  I think I’m going to go on vacation, somewhere warm and snake-less.  I’ll send you a post card.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Astrid had only just seen her visitor out the door when she heard the scrape of David’s key in the lock.  Sigyn must have known they were coming home.  She heard Luke’s voice on the other side of the door, and David’s laugh, and then the door swung open.  Astrid felt like laughing too.

“That’s a nice dress, Astrid,” said Luke, and he glanced at the tea things still out on the table.  “Did you have company?”

 “Yes,” said Astrid, smiling gratefully at David, who had already moved to help clear off the dishes.  “I spent the day with a rather good friend.”


End file.
